Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Learning to Multi-Task - Again

Long weekends ... sigh. Awesome. We entertained my sister who came to visit for the weekend, and got to make it out to the In-Laws for a visit and to do some awesomely-fun-muddy-quadding.

Back to work yesterday, though. Wasn't too bad. The new office coffee maker really helps out with the Monday-or-Tuesday-After-A-Long-Weekend-Blues. Mmmmm ... coffee.

This week, it seems that my lot in articling life is to re-learn the meaning of multi-task.

I swear, the Admitting Department at Foothills Hospital was wonderful training grounds for this Articling position. In Admitting, we had tons of things thrown at us all the time, where everything was a number one priority. We were put into extreme situations with extremely emotional people, and we were part of a very clear hierarchy, where orders and organization came through the proper channels.

Now, when I look at my desk at work, I'm always reminded of Admitting, and how I learned to keep my cool when there were important tasks piling up, with time running out.

Luckily, since I really have been EASED into the whole articling experience, there hasn't been an overwhelmed feeling of too much work, but I can see how lawyers really must perfect the fine dance of keeping on top of many files. I can see, as well, that my inefficient processes will hopefully soon be refined. As things become clearer, I'm more comfortable mixing tasks together ... today I had about three files open, and as I was waiting for something to come through for one file, I'd putter away at another, etc.